1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a recognition apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for recognizing a hand shape by using a preset finger pattern according to the hand shape.
2. Description of the Related Art
A general method of recognizing a hand shape detects, when an image is input, a plurality of edges within an image corresponding to areas having a preset size on the image. The method determines direction information on each of the detected edges, and then calculates a histogram of the determined direction information.
For example, when the edges of the image areas within the image are detected, the detected edge direction is determined and the number of edges having the determined edge direction is also determined, thereby generating the histogram. When the histogram for each area of the input image is completely generated, a histogram value corresponding to each area is compared with a preset reference histogram value to detect the hand shape. According to a result of the comparison, it is determined whether there is a reference histogram value similar to the histogram value corresponding to each area, and a hand shape corresponding to the determined reference histogram value is output as a recognition result.
As described above, in the prior art, the edges are determined along the preset area from the input image, the histogram for the determined edge direction is generated, the generated histogram is compared with the preset reference histogram, and then the hand shape is recognized according to the comparison result.
However, since the histogram for the edge direction is generated for each area in the prior art, there is a disadvantage in that the data throughput is large and thus quick recognition of the hand shape in a portable terminal is difficult.